Manufacturing process data conversion and structuring

ABSTRACT

A digital technology transfer system transforms technology transfer documents to a set of digitized manufacturing procedures and operations documentation. The system can transform a technology transfer document to a hierarchical structured model representing a package, or product to be manufactured, and the process for manufacturing the product. The resulting package model can be integrated into a larger model representing an ecosystem of manufacturing entities and plant facilities by assigning steps of the manufacturing process to one or more selected production lines. The system allows participants in the ecosystem to browse the hierarchical model to view information about the manufacturing entities, their plant facilities, and the packages assigned to the respective facilities. The system offers filtered role-specific views of the technology transfer documents, their approval statuses, and their plant assignments.

BACKGROUND

The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to industrial datasharing, and, for example, to distribution of technology transferdocuments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some aspects described herein. This summary is not anextensive overview nor is it intended to identify key/critical elementsor to delineate the scope of the various aspects described herein. Itssole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as aprelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In one or more embodiments, a system is provided, comprising a userinterface component configured to import a technology transfer documentcontaining information about a product to be manufactured and describinga manufacturing process for manufacturing the product; a conversioncomponent configured to translate the technology transfer document to apackage model, the package model comprising a hierarchically structuredorganization of nodes representing content sections of the technologytransfer document; and an export component configured to translateinformation about the manufacturing process contained in the packagemodel to control configuration data and to export the controlconfiguration data to an industrial device or system, wherein thecontrol configuration data configures the industrial device or system toexecute a portion of the manufacturing process.

Also, one or more embodiments provide a method, comprising importing, bya system comprising a processor, a technology transfer documentcontaining information about a product to be manufactured and describinga manufacturing process for manufacturing the product; converting, bythe system, the technology transfer document to a package model, thepackage model comprising a hierarchically structured organization ofobjects representing content sections of the technology transferdocument; generating, by the system, control configuration data based oninformation about the manufacturing process contained in the packagemodel; and sending, by the system, the control configuration data to anindustrial device or system to facilitate configuring the industrialdevice or system to execute a portion of the manufacturing process.

Also, according to one or more embodiments, a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium is provided having stored thereon instructionsthat, in response to execution, cause a technology transfer systemcomprising a processor to perform operations, the operations comprisingimporting a technology transfer document comprising informationdescribing a product to be manufactured and a manufacturing process formanufacturing the product; translating the technology transfer documentto a package model, wherein the package model comprises a hierarchicallystructured organization of nodes representing content sections of thetechnology transfer document; generating control configuration databased on information about the manufacturing process contained in thepackage model; and exporting the control configuration data to anindustrial device or system to facilitate configuring the industrialdevice or system to execute a portion of the manufacturing process.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certainillustrative aspects are described herein in connection with thefollowing description and the annexed drawings. These aspects areindicative of various ways which can be practiced, all of which areintended to be covered herein. Other advantages and novel features maybecome apparent from the following detailed description when consideredin conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example technology transfer systemaccording to one or more embodiments of this disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example flow of technologydocumentation from a technology owner to a manufacturing entity usingembodiments of the technology transfer system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating creation of an innovator model by thetechnology transfer system.

FIG. 4 is an example hierarchical schema for an innovator model.

FIG. 5 is an example company definition display that can be used tosubmit information about a technology owner for which an innovator modelis being built.

FIG. 6 is an example manufacturer definition display that can be used tosubmit information about a manufacturing entity to be associated with atechnology owner.

FIG. 7 is an example manufacturer summary display that lists definedmanufacturing entities that have been registered with the technologytransfer system.

FIG. 8 a is a first view of an example user role definition interfacethat can be used to define user roles and their associated permissions.

FIG. 8 b is a second view of the example user role definition interfacethat can be used to define user roles and their associated permissions.

FIG. 9 is an example user role summary screen that lists user rolesregistered with the technology transfer system.

FIG. 10 is an example user definition display that can be used toregister new users with the technology transfer system.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating submission of a technology transferdocument to the technology transfer system by a technology owner.

FIG. 12 a is a first segment of an example technology transfer document.

FIG. 12 b is a second segment of the example technology transferdocument.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example translation process thatcan be carried out by the conversion component of the technologytransfer system.

FIG. 14 is a hierarchical representation of an example aggregate modelcomprising an innovator model into which a package model representing atechnology transfer document has been integrated.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating the multi-tenant architecture of thetechnology transfer system whereby users associated with differentmanufacturing entities are permitted their own role-specific views ofthe data contained in an aggregated innovator and document model.

FIG. 16 is an example dashboard interface that can be generated by thetechnology transfer system for browsing package data and other elementsof the model.

FIG. 17 is another view of the dashboard interface illustratingsubmission of a package for review.

FIG. 18 is a view of the dashboard interface in which a section of apackage has been selected for review.

FIG. 19 is a view of the dashboard interface when one of the stage nodesis selected.

FIG. 20 is another view of the dashboard interface in which the user hasnavigated further down into the selected stage of the manufacturingprocess.

FIG. 21 is a view of the dashboard interface in which aggregate reviewstatuses of multiple packages are displayed.

FIG. 22 is a view of the dashboard interface in which the user hasselected a specific package node in the navigation tree.

FIG. 23 is a view of the dashboard interface in which a geographicalview of available plant facilities is rendered in the results window.

FIG. 24 is a view of a geographical map displayed by the dashboardinterface in which the user has hovered a cursor over a selected one ofthe plant icons.

FIG. 25 is an example dashboard that can be generated by the technologytransfer system and used to browse summary information for selectedcompanies, manufacturers, plants, and packages.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating submission of document edits by areviewer at a manufacturing entity.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating export of control configuration datato an MES system of a manufacturing entity.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating creation of a digital twin of amanufacturing process represented by a package model.

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating execution of the digital twin by thetechnology transfer system.

FIG. 30 is a flowchart of an example methodology for creating aninnovator model that defines an ecosystem of manufacturing entities thatare contracted with a technology owner to manufacture products.

FIG. 31 a is a flowchart of a first part of an example methodology fortranslating a technology transfer document to a digitized hierarchicalobject model notation.

FIG. 31 b is a flowchart of a second part of the example methodology fortranslating a technology transfer document to a digitized hierarchicalobject model notation.

FIG. 32 a is a flowchart of a first part of an example methodology forgenerating and simulating a digital twin of a manufacturing processbased on information obtained from a translated technology transferdocument.

FIG. 32 b is a flowchart of a second part of the example methodology forgenerating and simulating a digital twin of a manufacturing processbased on information obtained from a translated technology transferdocument.

FIG. 33 is an example computing environment.

FIG. 34 is an example networking environment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The subject disclosure is now described with reference to the drawings,wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elementsthroughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation,numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding thereof. It may be evident, however, that the subjectdisclosure can be practiced without these specific details. In otherinstances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagramform in order to facilitate a description thereof.

As used in this application, the terms “component,” “system,”“platform,” “layer,” “controller,” “terminal,” “station,” “node,”“interface” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity or anentity related to, or that is part of, an operational apparatus with oneor more specific functionalities, wherein such entities can be eitherhardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or softwarein execution. For example, a component can be, but is not limited tobeing, a process running on a processor, a processor, a hard disk drive,multiple storage drives (of optical or magnetic storage medium)including affixed (e.g., screwed or bolted) or removable affixedsolid-state storage drives; an object; an executable; a thread ofexecution; a computer-executable program, and/or a computer. By way ofillustration, both an application running on a server and the server canbe a component. One or more components can reside within a processand/or thread of execution, and a component can be localized on onecomputer and/or distributed between two or more computers, includingcloud-based computing systems. Also, components as described herein canexecute from various computer readable storage media having various datastructures stored thereon. The components may communicate via localand/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having oneor more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting withanother component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across anetwork such as the Internet with other systems via the signal). Asanother example, a component can be an apparatus with specificfunctionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electric orelectronic circuitry which is operated by a software or a firmwareapplication executed by a processor, wherein the processor can beinternal or external to the apparatus and executes at least a part ofthe software or firmware application. As yet another example, acomponent can be an apparatus that provides specific functionalitythrough electronic components without mechanical parts, the electroniccomponents can include a processor therein to execute software orfirmware that provides at least in part the functionality of theelectronic components. As further yet another example, interface(s) caninclude input/output (I/O) components as well as associated processor,application, or Application Programming Interface (API) components.While the foregoing examples are directed to aspects of a component, theexemplified aspects or features also apply to a system, platform,interface, layer, controller, terminal, and the like.

As used herein, the terms “to infer” and “inference” refer generally tothe process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system,environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured viaevents and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specificcontext or action, or can generate a probability distribution overstates, for example. The inference can be probabilistic—that is, thecomputation of a probability distribution over states of interest basedon a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer totechniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set ofevents and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of newevents or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored eventdata, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporalproximity, and whether the events and data come from one or severalevent and data sources.

In addition, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” ratherthan an exclusive “or.” That is, unless specified otherwise, or clearfrom the context, the phrase “X employs A or B” is intended to mean anyof the natural inclusive permutations. That is, the phrase “X employs Aor B” is satisfied by any of the following instances: X employs A; Xemploys B; or X employs both A and B. In addition, the articles “a” and“an” as used in this application and the appended claims shouldgenerally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwiseor clear from the context to be directed to a singular form.

Furthermore, the term “set” as employed herein excludes the empty set;e.g., the set with no elements therein. Thus, a “set” in the subjectdisclosure includes one or more elements or entities. As anillustration, a set of controllers includes one or more controllers; aset of data resources includes one or more data resources; etc.Likewise, the term “group” as utilized herein refers to a collection ofone or more entities; e.g., a group of nodes refers to one or morenodes.

Various aspects or features will be presented in terms of systems thatmay include a number of devices, components, modules, and the like. Itis to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may includeadditional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include allof the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection withthe figures. A combination of these approaches also can be used.

Technology owners in some industrial verticals often distribute thespecifics of their technical innovations to partners or third-partyentities for manufacture using a protocol known as technology transfer.In an example technology transfer scenario, a pharmaceutical companythat holds ownership of the manufacturing details of a pharmaceuticalproduct can send these details, in the form of a technology transferdocument, to partner manufacturing entities, who use these documents asan instructional guide for producing the product. These technologytransfer documents are typically written in a structured naturallanguage format and include such information as a summary of theproduct, descriptions of the steps of the industrial process formanufacturing the product, and control parameters for the industrialprocess. As part of the manufacturing process description, thesetechnology transfer documents may also include data formatted as charts,tables, or other documentation.

There are a number of inefficiencies in the manner in which thesetechnical documents are exchanged between entities. For example, becauseof the asynchronous approval and editing process, whereby multiplemanagers and engineers may submit review feedback or edits to thedocument in parallel, there may be multiple different versions of agiven document in circulation before the finalized document is approvedfor deployment and implementation. Tracking these different versions ofthe technical document can be difficult and may result in the loss ofinformation. Moreover, the absence of a formalized approval collectionprocess can make collection of document approvals difficult.Distribution of finalized technology transfer documents andimplementation of the documented manufacturing processes at themanufacturing facilities can also benefit from a greater degree ofdigital formalization of the technology transfer process.

To address these and other issues, one or more embodiments describedherein provide a digital technology transfer system capable oftransforming technology transfer documents to a set of digitizedmanufacturing procedures and operations documentation. To this end, thetechnology transfer system can transform a technology transfer documentto a hierarchical structured model representing a package, or product tobe manufactured, and the process for manufacturing the product. Theresulting package model can then be integrated into a larger modelrepresenting an ecosystem of manufacturing entities by assigning stepsof the manufacturing process to one or more selected production lines.User interface features allow participants in the ecosystem to browsethe resulting hierarchical model and view information about themanufacturing entities, their plant facilities, and the packagesassigned to the respective facilities. The system offers filteredrole-specific views of the technology transfer documents, their approvalstatuses, and their plant assignments. In some embodiments, the systemcan also translate portions of the package model to controlconfiguration data that can be exported to industrial systems anddevices to facilitate configuring those systems and devices tomanufacture the product represented by the package model.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example technology transfer system 102according to one or more embodiments of this disclosure. Aspects of thesystems, apparatuses, or processes explained in this disclosure canconstitute machine-executable components embodied within machine(s),e.g., embodied in one or more computer-readable mediums (or media)associated with one or more machines. Such components, when executed byone or more machines, e.g., computer(s), computing device(s), automationdevice(s), virtual machine(s), etc., can cause the machine(s) to performthe operations described.

Technology transfer system 102 can include a user interface component104, a model builder component 106, a conversion component 108, anexport component 110, a digital twin generator component 112, asimulation component 114, a package management component 116, one ormore processors 118, and memory 120. In various embodiments, one or moreof the user interface component 104, model builder component 106,conversion component 108, export component 110, digital twin generatorcomponent 112, simulation component 114, package management component116, the one or more processors 118, and memory 120 can be electricallyand/or communicatively coupled to one another to perform one or more ofthe functions of the technology transfer system 102. In someembodiments, components 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, and 116 cancomprise software instructions stored on memory 120 and executed byprocessor(s) 118. Technology transfer system 102 may also interact withother hardware and/or software components not depicted in FIG. 1 . Forexample, processor(s) 118 may interact with one or more external userinterface devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a display monitor, atouchscreen, a smart phone, a tablet computer, an AR/VR wearableappliance, or other such interface devices.

User interface component 104 can be configured to receive user input andto render output to a user in any suitable format (e.g., visual, audio,tactile, etc.). In some embodiments, user interface component 104 canrender interactive interface displays on a display device (e.g., adisplay device associated with a desktop computer, a laptop computer, atablet computer, a smart phone, etc.), where the interface displaysserve as the interface for the technology transfer system 102. The userinterface component 104 can render various interface displays andassociated tools that allow a user to build a hierarchical innovatormodel describing an ecosystem of manufacturing entities and theirlocations and capabilities; submit a technology transfer document (e.g.,a portable document format (PDF) document) and assign manufacturingprocesses described in the document to selected manufacturing entities;view and submit document review statuses; browse technology packagesthat have been submitted to the system; and other such interfacefunctions.

Model builder component 106 can be configured to generate a digitalhierarchical innovator model comprising nodes representing manufacturingentities or other partner entities associated with a technology owner(e.g., a pharmaceutical company or other innovator), as well as thecapabilities and manufacturing lines associated with the respectiveentities. The model builder component 106 can also define users, userroles, and access permissions for users permitted to view and interactwith this innovator model.

Conversion component 108 can be configured to covert a digitaltechnology transfer document from a native format (e.g., a PDF format orother natural language format) to a digital hierarchical package modelcomprising nodes representing the various process stages, steps, andparameters described in the document. The conversion component 108 alsoassigns relevant portions of the document—including text-based processdescriptions, charts, tables, and process parameters—to the respectivenodes of the package model. The conversion component 108 can alsointegrated the resulting document model into the larger innovator modelbased on defined assignments of manufacturing processes or steps torespective production lines operated by the manufacturing entities.

Export component 110 can be configured to export selected informationcontained in the digitized technology transfer document to externalsystems, including but not limited to manufacturing execution systems(MES) that monitor and manage control operations on the control level,enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that integrate andcollectively manage high-level business operations, industrialcontrollers that monitor and control industrial machines and processesat the plant level, or other such systems or devices. In someembodiments, the export component 110 can export control configurationdata that configures respective industrial devices or systems to executesteps of the manufacturing process described in the technology transferdocument.

Digital twin generator component 112 can be configured to generate adigital twin of a product manufacturing process based on informationabout the process and its associated production lines obtained from thehierarchical models. Simulation component 114 can be configured tosimulate, based on the digital twin, manufacture of the product ondesignated production lines in accordance with the processes describedin the technology transfer document. Package management component 116can be configured to collect and manage approval statuses for thepackage and, in some embodiments, register content of the package modelin a blockchain in a secure an immutable manner.

The one or more processors 118 can perform one or more of the functionsdescribed herein with reference to the systems and/or methods disclosed.Memory 120 can be a computer-readable storage medium storingcomputer-executable instructions and/or information for performing thefunctions described herein with reference to the systems and/or methodsdisclosed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example flow of technologydocumentation from a technology owner 202 to a manufacturing entity 214using embodiments of the technology transfer system 102. Although theexamples illustrated and described herein depict the use of system 102to manage pharmaceutical technology data, the technology transfer system102 can be used to manage transfer of technology within the context ofsubstantially any industrial vertical, including but not limited toautomotive, food and drug, textiles, oil and gas, or other verticals.

The technology transfer system 102 can be implemented on any suitablehigh-level system or platform accessible to the participants involved inthe technology transfer. For example, in some embodiments the system 102can be implemented as a set of cloud-based services on a cloud platformusing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. In other embodiments, thesystem 102 may be implemented on one or more servers accessible toauthorized users via a public and/or private network.

In general, the technology transfer system 102 supports digitalizationof pharmaceutical manufacturing procedures and operational documentationprovided in a natural language format, such as a PDF document or anothertype of natural language document format. The system 102 serves as a hubthat allows technology owners 202 to transfer technical documentsrelating to a product to manufacturing entities 214, such as contractdevelopment and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), thus acting as abridge between technology owners and the manufacturers that will beproducing physical instances of the technology.

A technology owner 202, such as a pharmaceutical company, can create atechnology transfer document 204 describing specifics of a technologytransfer package. The technology document 204 can describe a product tobe manufactured (e.g., a pharmaceutical product) as well asmanufacturing details for producing the product. Document 204 can beformatted as a combination of natural language and, if appropriate,other informational structures including but not limited to charts,tables, or graphs. In some scenarios, the document 204 can comprise adigital PDF file. However, other file formats for document 204 are alsowithin the scope of one or more embodiments, including but not limitedto word processing documents or image documents.

When the technology owner 202 submits the document 204 to the technologytransfer system 102, conversion services 206 supported by the system 102perform natural language processing on the document 204 to identifycontent sections contained in the document, including but not limited toproduct summaries, descriptions of stages of a manufacturing process,descriptions of process steps that make up the respective stages,process parameters associated with steps of the manufacturing stages,tables, charts, or other such elements. The conversion services 206translate these discovered document elements to a hierarchical model 208having a tree-like structure that conforms to a relevant industrialstandard such as ISA-88.

Once the model 208 is created, access and visualization services 210supported by the system 102 allow manufacturing entities 214, such asCDMOs, to view and interact with the organized document elements encodedin the model 208. These services 210 support workflows for viewing andediting the document data through interaction with the model 208 inaccordance with role-specific access permissions. The system 102 alsoincludes approval tracking tools that collect and track documentapprovals from authorized users who are part of the approval chain. Insome embodiments, product recipe data obtained from the document 204 andintegrated into the model 208 can be exported to manufacturing orcontrol systems—e.g., MES or ERP systems—associated with relevantmanufacturing entities 214.

Prior to distribution of technology documents 204, the technologytransfer system 102 allows a technology owner 202 to create an innovatormodel that represents the various manufacturing entities 214 who have abusiness relationship with the technology owner 202, as well as thecapabilities, users, and access permissions associated with thosemanufacturing entities 214. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating creation ofan innovator model 304 by the technology transfer system 102. In anexample scenario, a technology owner 202, such as a pharmaceuticalcompany that develops drug formulations, contracts with multiplemanufacturing entities 214 to manufacture pharmaceutical products (e.g.,topical or oral medications). To facilitate translation and distributionof technology transfer documents 204 to these manufacturing entities214, tools supported by the system 102 allow an administrator associatedwith the technology owner 202 (or innovator) to create an innovatormodel 304 that represents these various manufacturing entities and theirrespective capabilities as a hierarchical structure of nodes.

To this end, the user interface component 104 can render configurationinterface displays on an authorized user's client device that allow theuser to submit model definition information 302 describing the entitiesto be represented by the model 304. The model builder component 106 thenuses this model definition input 302 to create the innovator model 304.The format of innovator model 304 can conform to any suitablehierarchical schema depicting relationships between the technology owner202, the manufacturing entities 214, and the respective plant facilitiesassociated with the manufacturing entities 214. FIG. 4 is an examplehierarchical schema 412 for the innovator model 304 according to one ormore embodiments. In this example, the technology owner is representedby the highest level 402 of the schema. Since the innovator model 304 isspecific to a given technology owner 202 in this scenario, there is onlyone such technology owner node in this example. In some embodiments, themodel builder component 106 can enforce conformance of the innovatormodel 304 with an industrial standard, such as ISA-88.

Below the technology owner level 402, a manufacturers level 404comprises one or more manufacturer nodes representing manufacturingentities 214 employed by the technology owner 202 to manufactureproducts in accordance with the formulations described in the technologytransfer documents 204. Each manufacturer node is associated with one ormore plant nodes defined in a plant level 406. The plant nodes aredefined as child nodes of the plant nodes and represent the plantfacilities owned by the manufacturer and available to manufactureproduct. The production lines and manufacturing capabilities of eachplant are defined under a line level 408 and a capability level 410,respectively, which reside under the plant level 406. It is to beappreciated that the hierarchical schema 412 depicted in FIG. 4 is onlyintended to be exemplary, and that innovator model 304 can conform toany suitable schema in which the manufacturers and their plantfacilities are represented. As will be described in more detail herein,information contained in technology transfer documents 204 submitted tothe system 102 will be translated and integrated into this innovatormodel 304 as additional nodes within the schema 412.

In addition to defining the hierarchical structure of the plantecosystem as represented by schema 412, the model definition input 302can also define users associated with the various entities defined bythe model 304 (technology owner 202 and manufacturing entities 214) andtheir respective roles. This user and role information is stored inassociation with the model 304 as user definition data 414. The role ofeach user will determine the degree of visibility and access the userhas to the information contained in the model 304.

FIGS. 5-10 illustrate various example interface displays that can berendered by the user interface component 104 and used to submit modeldefinition input 302. FIG. 5 is an example company definition display502 that can be used to submit information about the technology owner202 for which the innovator model 304 is being built. Display 502 caninclude data entry fields for submitting information about thetechnology owner 202 (or company), including the owner's name, status,location (country, state, city, zip code, etc.) web address, and phonenumber. Once this company information is entered, selecting the submitbutton 504 on the display 502 registers the technology owner 202 andallows the owner's innovator model 304 to be built.

FIG. 6 is an example manufacturer definition display 602 that can beused to submit information about a manufacturing entity 214 to beassociated with a technology owner 202. Display 602 includes a drop-downselection field 606 for selecting the technology owner 202 for which amanufacturer is being defined. The selection field 606 is populated withthe names of any registered technology owners 202 that were registeredusing display 502 illustrated in FIG. 5 . Interface display 602 alsoinclude data entry fields for entering information about themanufacturing entity to be defined for the selected technology owner202, including the manufacturer's name, type, status, location (country,city, state, zip code, etc.), web address, and phone number. Once valuesof these fields have been entered, selecting a Submit button 604 causesthe submitted manufacturer information to be added to the technologyowner's innovator model 304.

FIG. 7 is an example manufacturer summary display 702 that lists alldefined manufacturing entities 214 that have been registered with thesystem 102 using interface display 602. This summary display 702 liststhe registered manufacturing entities in tabular form, including columnsthat indicate each manufacturer's type and location, as well as thetechnology owner 202 (company) with which the manufacturer isassociated. Display 702 also indicates, for each registeredmanufacturer, a date on which the manufacturer was registered with thesystem 102 and an identity of the authorized user who registered themanufacturer. From this display 702, a user can invoke display 602 toregister another manufacturing entity 214 by selecting the Add NewManufacturer button 704.

FIGS. 8 a and 8 b are views of an example user role definition interface802 that can be used to define user roles and their associatedpermissions. Interface 802 includes data entry fields for entering aname and description of the user role, as well as an Access Permissionsswitchboard panel 804 that lists configurable permission categories thatcan be set for the user role. The access permissions configured usingswitchboard panel 804 determine the degree to which users assigned tothe role are permitted to view and engage with information in the model304. Permissions that can be set using control panel 804 can include,but are not limited to, the user's ability to invoke dashboards thatprovide a view into the data contained in the model 304; the user'sability to view, create, edit, delete, or approve a product package(that is, package represented by technology transfer document 204); theuser's ability to view or create a file attachment; the user's abilityto view, create, edit, or delete manufacturer information registeredwith the system 102; the user's ability to view, create, edit, or deleteplant information registered with the system 102; the user's ability toview, create, edit, or delete user information; the user's ability tosubmit package approvals; or other such permissions.

The panel 804 allow access permissions for various access categories tobe set at substantially any degree of granularity in variousembodiments. In the illustrated example, the panel 804 segregates theaccess permissions according to category (e.g., package permissions,file attachment permissions, manufacturer permissions, plantpermissions, user permissions, etc.), and specific permissions undereach category can be set via interaction with binary switches next toeach permission, such that the switch setting indicates whether the userrole is to be permitted or denied the corresponding permission.

FIG. 9 is an example user role summary display 902 that lists the userroles currently registered with the system 102. The user roles arelisted in a tabular format, with columns indicating, for each defineduser role, a description of the role, a date on which the role wasregistered, and an identity of a user who registered the user role.Example user roles can include, but are not limited to, a viewerassociated with the technology owner 202, a viewer associated with amanufacturing entity 214 (which may be afforded more limited access tothe model 304 whereby the viewer can only view information associatedwith his or her affiliated manufacturing entity), an administrator, areviewer, an operator, an engineer, a maintenance person, or other suchroles. A user with suitable editing privileges can edit any of the userroles listed on display 902 by selecting an editing control 904 next tothe role, which invokes the user role configuration interface 802 for aselected user role.

FIG. 10 is an example user definition display 1002 that can be used toregister new users with the system 102. Display 1002 comprises dataentry fields for entering a user's name, contact information (emailaddress, phone number, etc.), and location (country, state, city, zipcode, etc.). Display 1002 also includes a drop-down selection field 1004for selecting a user role to which the user is to be assigned. Selectionfield 1004 is populated with the user roles that were defined usinginterface 802 illustrated in FIGS. 8 a and 8 b . Designating apre-defined user role to the user in this way assigns the user the sameaccess permissions that were defined for the role.

Based on information provided by a user using the model configurationdisplays described above in connection with FIGS. 5-10 , or other modelconfiguration displays having similar functionalities, the model buildercomponent 106 creates a hierarchical innovator model 304 that isspecific to a given technology owner 202 and which representsmanufacturing entities 214 having a business relationship with thetechnology owner 202. Plant facilities owned by the respectivemanufacturing entities 214, as well as their respective capabilities andlines, are also represented in the model 304. Since a given technologyowner 202 may have contracts with multiple manufacturing entities 214,the model 302 represents a one-to-many relationship between thetechnology owner 202 and its associated manufacturing entities 214.

Once the innovator model 304 established, the technology owner 202 canbegin submitting technology transfer documents 204 to the system 102 fortranslation and deployment to selected manufacturing entities 214 viainteraction with the model 302. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustratingsubmission of a technology transfer document 204 to the technologytransfer system 102 by a technology owner 202. User interface component104 can render, on a client device associated with an authorizedrepresentative of the technology owner 202, a document submissioninterface that allows the authorized representative to upload atechnology transfer document 204 to the system 102. Technology transferdocument 204 can be submitted to the system 102 in substantially anydigital format, including but not limited to a PDF file, a wordprocessing file, an image file such as a joint photographic exportsgroup (JPEG) file, or another format containing natural languagecontent. In general, technology transfer documents 204 are written toconvey information about a manufacturing process for a given product(e.g., a pharmaceutical product) from a technology owner 202 to amanufacturing entity 214. These documents 204 can describe themanufacturing operations, process stages, process steps, and processparameters to be followed as part of the process of producing theproduct. An example technology transfer document 204 can be written as astructured natural language document comprising various sections andsub-sections that convey different aspects of the manufacturing process.

FIGS. 12 a and 12 b are two segments of an example technology transferdocument 204. As shown in FIG. 12 a , document 204 can include a summarysection (Section 1.0) under which are various summary sub-sections,including an overview sub-section (Section 1.1) that describes theproduct to be manufactured and background information regarding thedevelopment of the product. Other sub-sections can provide furtherbackground information for the product. Other sections of the document204 can describe the process stages and associated process steps formanufacturing the product in more detail. This process information caninclude natural language descriptions of the process as well as anyfigures, charts, tables, or process parameters necessary to describe theprocess to the manufacturing entity 214 at a level of detail sufficientto carry out the manufacturing process.

Returning to FIG. 11 , once the technology owner 202 has submitted oruploaded the technology transfer document 204 to the system 102, theconversion component 108 processes and translates the document 204 to acontextualized package model 1106 that digitally represents the document204 in a hierarchical object notation. The package model 1106 cancomprise a hierarchical structure having nodes representing respectiveaspects of the document 204, including the manufacturing processes,stages, steps, and control parameters described in the document 204.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example translation process thatcan be carried out by the conversion component 108 in one or moreembodiments. According to an example translation process, the conversioncomponent 108 can initially apply natural language processing to thedocument 204 as part of a cognitive service and generate a raw objectmodel 1302 representing the document 204 based on results of thisprocessing. The raw object model 1302 is an intermediate,uncontextualized representation formatted according to any suitableobject notation, such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). The rawobject model 1302 comprises objects or nodes representing the varioussections and sub-sections discovered in the document 204 based on thenatural language processing. The conversion component 108 can be trainedto identify characteristics of the document 204 indicative of a sectionor sub-section, including but not limited to alphanumeric headers withinthe document, recognizable content formatting or properties from whichthe types of content within the document 204 can be inferred, or othersuch characteristics.

Also, in some embodiments, the conversion component 108 can beconfigured to recognize sections or content types contained in thedocument 204 based on tags embedded in the document 204. These tags maybe included in the document 204 if the document 204 was created using apre-defined template that allows a user to generate the document 204 byentering document content—e.g., process stage or step descriptions,graphs, charts, process parameters, etc.—in designated data entry fieldscorresponding to the different types of content. This approach tocreating the technology transfer document 204 can yield a document 204having embedded tags that identify the different types of content, andthese tags can be leveraged by the conversion component 108 to identifythe various document sections and translate those sections intocorresponding nodes of the raw object model 1302.

One the raw model 1302 has been generated, the conversion component 108can apply contextualization processing to the raw model 1302 to organizethe objects of the raw model 1302 into a meaningful hierarchicalstructure, yielding a structured object model 1304. The structuredobject model 1304 (which can also be formatted in JSON in someembodiments) comprises a hierarchical organization of nodes representingthe various content items contained in the document 204, where thehierarchical structure reflects the relationships between the differentitems of content. For example, a node representing a section of thedocument may be defined in the structured model 1304 as a parent node ofmultiple child nodes representing the sub-sections within that section.In another example, a parent node representing a process stage may havea number of associated child nodes representing process steps that makeup the stage. These process step nodes may have associated child nodesrepresenting control parameters (e.g., temperatures, fill levels, etc.),graphs, or tables associated with that step of the process.

In some embodiments, the conversion component 108 can create thestructured object model 1304 by identifying labels, tokens, or keyscontained in the raw object model 1302 and organizing the nodes of thestructured object model 1304 based on these labels. This conversion canbe carried out based on defined rules for converting the labels tocontextual information that can be used to determine an appropriatestructure for the model 1304.

As a final conversion step, the conversion component 108 can translatethe structured object model 1304 to an industrial standard that isspecific to the industrial vertical of the product described by thedocument 204. For example, in some embodiments the conversion component108 can organize the object model 1304 to conform to an ISA-88 standardfor modeling or describing industrial processes in terms of plantfacilities, plant areas, lines, equipment, devices, stages, steps, andother units of an industrial process. Applying this standardization tothe structured object model 1304 yields the finalized package model1106, which digitally represents the contents of the technology transferdocument 204 as a contextualized hierarchical structure of nodes orobjects. The resulting package model 1106 represents a digitaltechnology transfer package for a given product to be produced by one ormore of the manufacturing facilities defined in the innovator model 304.

Returning to FIG. 11 , the resulting contextualized package model 1106is then partitioned and integrated into the innovator model 304 inaccordance with distribution information 1102 submitted by thetechnology owner 202. Once the package model 1106 has been generated,the technology transfer system 102 allows the technology owner 202 toidentify which of the available manufacturing facilities defined in theinnovator model 304 are to be assigned to carry out the respectiveprocess stages or steps represented in the package model 1106.Integration of one or more package models 1106 into the innovator model304 yields the aggregate hierarchical model 208 (see FIG. 2 )

FIG. 14 is a hierarchical representation of an example aggregate model208 comprising an innovator model 304 into which a package model 1106has been integrated. As described above, the innovator model 304, whichserves as the basis for the aggregate model 208, comprises a parent node1402 representing the technology owner 202 (Company), below which are anumber of manufacturer nodes 1404 representing manufacturing entities214 that were defined as having a business relationship with thetechnology owner 202 using configuration displays 602 and 702. Althoughonly a single manufacturing node 1404 is depicted in FIG. 14 forclarity, the model 208 may comprise multiple manufacturers nodes 1404defined in the Manufacturers layer. Below each manufacturer node 1404are one or more plant nodes 1406 representing plant facilities that areowned and managed by the corresponding manufacturer. In some scenarios,the plant node 1406 may be named after the country, state, or city inwhich the plant facility is located.

Each plant node 1406 has an associated Capabilities layer 1408 thatdefies, as child nodes, in-plant capabilities supported by thecorresponding plant (e.g., mixing, machining, packaging, etc.). A Linelayer 1410 under each plant node 1406 comprises child nodes representingthe production lines in operation within the plant facility, and whichsupport the capabilities defined under the Capabilities layer 1408. Theproduction line nodes under the Lines layer 1410 can comprise childnodes representing items of equipment (e.g., mixers) that make up eachproduction line. In some embodiments, the system 102 can set informationabout a given plant's manufacturing capabilities or production linesbased on analysis of plant documentation uploaded to the system 102,such as plant capability documents or line layout drawings.

Technology transfer system 102 allows a technology owner 202 to assigntechnology package information, as represented by the contextualizedpackage model 1106, to selected plants defined in the model 208. To thisend, each plant node 1406 defined in the model 208 can have anassociated Packages layer 1414, below which one or more technologytransfer packages—represented by package model 1106—can be created.Within the context of the model 208, a technology transfer packagecomprises the hierarchical structure of nodes defined by thecontextualized package model 1106, which itself represents a technologytransfer document 204. Once the conversion component 108 has translateda technology transfer document 204 to a hierarchical package model 1106as described above, the technology owner 202 can selectively assign theresulting package model 1106 to one or more plants defined in the largerhierarchical model 208. Typically, the selected plants will belong tomanufacturing entities 214 who will be contracted to execute one or moreof the manufacturing process stages or steps described in the document204.

In an example workflow, the user interface component 104 can render, ona client device associated with an authorized representative of thetechnology owner 202, a browsable representation of the innovator model304 that allows the representative to browse the availablemanufacturers, their plant facilities, and the lines and capabilities ofthose facilities. The representative can then selectively assign apackage—represented by package model 1106—to a selected one or more ofthe plant facilities. Based on this selective association, the system102 integrates the package model 1106 into the larger innovator model304 by adding the hierarchical structure of the package model 1106 tothe Packages layer 1414 of the selected plant, yielding the aggregatemodel 208. As shown in FIG. 14 , the package is represented by a parentnode identifying the package (e.g., “P-001”) below which are nodesrepresenting the process document for the product represented by thepackage as well as the process for manufacturing the process. TheProcess Document node represents documentation describing the product,as obtained from the original technology transfer document 204, and maycomprise child nodes (not shown in FIG. 14 ) representing varioussections and subsections of the descriptive portions of the document204. Below the Process node are child nodes representing one or morestages of the manufacturing process for producing the products. A givenstage may comprise one or more operations, which are also represented aschild nodes below the Process Stage node. Process steps that make up agiven operation of the process stage are also represented as child nodesbelow the Process Operation node. Any control parameters (e.g.,temperatures, pressures, etc.) associated with a given process step arerepresented as child nodes below the Process Step node. Otherinformational entities contained in the original document 204, such asflow diagrams or charts, can also be represented as nodes of thepackage. The package has been assigned to a plant facility located inIreland, and consequently the package model 1106 has been added belowthe plant node 1406 corresponding to that plant.

In general, each package encapsulates the contents of a given technologytransfer document 204 as a digital structure formatted in accordancewith an industrial standard, such as ISA-88. The nodes of the packagemodel 1106 can be expanded to view the processes steps, stages, andparameters that make up the package, and which convey to themanufacturing entities 214 the recipes and processes for manufacturingthe product represented by the document 204.

Although FIG. 14 depicts a single package that has been assigned in itsentirety to a single plant (Ireland), any number of packagesrepresenting translated documents 204 can be submitted to the system 102and assigned to one or more plants. Moreover, a given package may bepartitioned among multiple different plants if different stages of thepackage's manufacturing process are to be carried out at different plantfacilities. In such scenarios, the user can reference information in theCapabilities layer 1408 for each plant to determine whether a givenplant has the necessary capabilities for carrying out a particularoperation or stage of the manufacturing process. In some embodiments,the system 102 can verify that each operation of the package has beenassigned to a plant whose capabilities satisfy the requirements of theoperation. In response to determining that the technology owner 202 hasattempted to assign a process operation or stage requiring a capability(e.g., mixing) to a plant that does not support that capability, theuser interface component 104 can render a warning or notification thatthe selected plant may not be capable of carrying out the operation.

The system 102 permits various types of users to view and interact withthe model 208 in different ways based on the role-specific accesspermissions defined using interface 802 as described above, and furtherbased on their entity affiliations. For example, users 1416 that areaffiliated with the technology owner 202 (represented by company node1402) can access all data below the company node 1402, including dataassociated with multiple different manufacturing entities that have abusiness relationship with the technology owner 202. By contrast, usersaffiliated with a given manufacturing entity 214 can only access dataunder their own manufacturer node 1404, while being prevented fromaccessing data associated with other manufacturers. FIG. 15 is a diagramillustrating the multi-tenant architecture of the technology transfersystem 102, whereby users associated with different manufacturingentities 214 are permitted their own role-specific views of the datacontained in the model 208, which are presented via dashboards 1502generated by the user interface component 104. Since there may be aone-to-many relationship between a technology owner 202 and themanufacturing entities 214 contracted to manufacture product for thetechnology owner 202, users associated with each manufacturing entity214 defined in the model 208 are permitted to view and interact withlimited sections of the model 208.

The user interface component 104 can render entity- and role-specificdashboards 1502 or other types of user interfaces to client devicesassociated with users affiliated with respective manufacturing entities214, or with the technology owner 202. These dashboards allow a user tobrowse portions of the model 208, including components of the packagemodel 1106, that are within the scope of the user's defined accesspermissions. The dashboards 1502 also allow the user to interact with oredit portions of the model 208 to a degree permitted by the user's roleand entity affiliation. FIG. 16 is an example dashboard interface 1602that can be generated by user interface component 104 for browsingpackage data and other elements of the model 208. This example interface1602 comprises a navigation window 1606 that renders a navigation tree1604 comprising the hierarchical structure of elements (manufacturers,plants, packages, etc.) defined by the model 208. Navigation tree 1604serves as a visualization of the model 208 that has been filtered orcustomized based on the user's access permissions. For example, if theuser is affiliated with the technology owner 202, all nodes and data ofthe model 208 are visible and accessible via navigation tree 1604.Alternatively, if the user is affiliated with a manufacturing entity214, the navigation tree 1604 may only reflect the portion of the model208 relating to the user's affiliated manufacturing entity 214.

Selecting a node of the navigation tree 1604 causes summary informationfor packages associated with the selected node to be displayed in aresults window 1608. In the illustrated example, the user has selectedpackage P-003, which has been assigned to a plant DTTP Plant 2 owned bymanufacturing entity DTTP Mfg. This causes information about theselected package P-003 to be displayed in the results window 1608. Theresults rendered in window 1608 can depend on the level of the tree 1604that is selected. For example, selection of a node representing amanufacturing entity or plant facility causes all packages assigned tothat manufacturer or plant to be displayed in window 1608.

As will be described in more detail below, once a technology transferdocument 204 for a new package has been translated to a contextualizedpackage model 1106 and integrated into the aggregate model 208, thetechnology transfer system 102 can manage editing, version control,approval, and sign-off for the package. Accordingly, the summaryinformation for the selected package displayed in the results window1608 includes the current review status of the selected package. Atvarious stages of the package's lifecycle, the package may transitionthrough such statuses as “Draft,” “In Review,” “Rejected,” “Accepted,”or “In Production.” System 102 provides tools for package reviewers toview packages that are currently in review, to submit their approval orrejection of the package, and to share comments or proposed edits withother reviewers. The status of the package is updated in accordance withthese interactions.

FIG. 17 is another view of interface 1602 illustrating submission of apackage for review. A package that has been submitted to the system 102and integrated into model 208 can be assigned to a designated set ofreviewers, and the package is only permitted to be put into productionafter all reviewers have approved a finalized version of the package. Toinitiate the review process, an administrator can invoke a menu window1702 via interaction with the node representing the package (e.g.,P-006). Menu window 1702 lists various selectable actions relating tothe package, including file management, exporting the package'shierarchical model, invoking the digital status of the package, orinvoking a log of interactions with the package. The menu window 1702also includes a selection for submitting the package for review,selection of which places the package in “Review” status. When thepackage is submitted for review, the system 102 (e.g., the packagemanagement component 116) can send notifications directed to users whohave been designated to review the package. Package reviewers can beidentified as users whose user role affords permission to approve apackage, as defined using the Access Permissions configuration controlpanel 804 (see the Package section of the control panel 804 illustratedin FIG. 8 a ). The reviewers may also have been expressly assigned toreview the package in some scenarios. The notification informs thereviewers that the new package is available for review.

Designated users can review content of the package by browsing thenavigation tree 1604 and selecting nodes representing sections of thepackage. FIG. 18 is a view of interface 1602 in which a section of apackage has been selected for review. As shown in this view, a selectedpackage (e.g., P-006) can be expanded in the navigation tree 1604 toreveal a hierarchical organization of nodes representing the package'scontent, including the stages and steps that make up the manufacturingprocess for the package. The package nodes correspond to sections of theoriginal technology transfer document 204, and the arrangement of thesenodes reflects the hierarchical model 1106 of the package (see FIG. 14 )generated from the original document 204. In the example depicted inFIG. 18 , selection of the P-006 package node has expanded the packagemodel to review a manufacturing process node 1802 (SJ2 ManufacturingProcess), below which are nodes representing the various stages thatmake up this process. Selection of the manufacturing process node 1802causes a description of the process to be displayed in the resultswindow 1608. This description is drawn from the original technologytransfer document 204 and was extracted from document by the conversioncomponent 108 during the document translation process described above.

FIG. 19 is a view of interface 1602 when one of the stage nodes isselected. In this example, the user has selected the node 1902corresponding to Stage 4 of the manufacturing process. Selection of thisStage node 1902 causes detailed information about the correspondingstage to be displayed in the results window 1608. If more than one typeof information is associated with the selected stage, the results window1608 displays a set of category tabs 1904 representing the differenttypes of information available. Example types of information that can beassociated with a selected stage of a manufacturing process can include,but are not limited to, a description of the stage; flow diagrams,charts, or tables associated with the stage; illustrative examples;control parameters for the stage; or other such information. Selectionof one of the category tabs 1904 causes the information associated withthe selected category to be displayed in the results window 1608.

FIG. 20 is another view of interface 1602 in which the user hasnavigated further down into the selected stage of the manufacturingprocess. Selecting a Stage node 1902 in the navigation tree 1604 canexpand the node to reveal one or more Step nodes 2002 representing thesteps that make up the stage. Selection of one of these Step nodes 2002causes detailed information about the selected step to be displayed inthe results window 1608. Step information that can be displayed in thismanner can include, but is not limited to, a natural languagedescription of the step as well as process or control parameters for thestep (e.g., process temperatures, flow directions, linear velocities, pHlevels, mixing rates, mixing times, conductivities, paus times, etc.).This information can be used by the manufacturing entity 214 toconfigure its control devices and machines to execute the manufacturingprocess described by the document 204. Some of this step information canbe obtained from tables that were included in the original technologytransfer document 204, and which were identified by the conversioncomponent 108 as containing relevant process parameters for thecorresponding step.

Since the navigation tree 1604 reflects the hierarchical structure ofthe underlying model 208, the tree 1604 conforms to the industrialstandard (e.g., ISA-88) in which the model 208 is formatted. This allowsa user familiar with the industrial standard to easily browse and locateelement of interested within the tree 1604 by navigating a standardizedorganization of hierarchical layers (e.g., industrial enterprise, plant,area, production line, machine, device, etc.).

During the review phase, the reviewers can browse the content of thepackage as described above and submit results of their review—e.g.,approved or rejected—to the system 102, which tracks the review statusof each submitted package. FIG. 21 is a view of interface 1602 in whichaggregate review statuses of multiple packages are displayed. In thisexample, selection of a Packages node 2102 below a selected plantfacility (e.g., Plant C) in the navigation tree 1604 causes a list ofactive packages associated with plant to be displayed in the resultswindow 1608, together with each package's current review status (e.g.,Draft, Review, Approved, or Rejected). In some configurations, thepackage management component 116 may assign an Approved status to apackage only if all designated reviewers of the package have submittedan Approved status for the package. If one or more designated reviewerssubmits a Rejected status for the package, the package managementcomponent 116 assigns a Rejected status to the package. In someembodiments, a reviewer can submit his or her review status viainteraction with the review status display illustrated in FIG. 21 ;e.g., by selecting an edit icon 2104 next to the relevant package toinvoke a status submission window.

In some embodiments, reviewers may also attach comments or submit editsto selected portions of the package via interaction with interface 1602.Once submitted, these comments or edits can be viewed by otherreviewers. Example comments or edits can include, for example,correction of errors found in the recipe or manufacturing process forthe product, concerns regarding clarity or accuracy of images that areassociated with the package or its manufacturing process, or other suchsubmissions.

FIG. 22 is a view of interface 1602 in which the user has selected aspecific package node 2202 in the navigation tree 1604, which causesreview status information for the selected package to be displayed inthe results window 1608. In addition to displaying the current reviewstatus of the selected package, the results window 1608 also displays adocument selection control 2204 that allows the user to open and viewthe original technology transfer document 204 that was submitted for thepackage.

Once a package has passed all reviews and received Approved status, thetechnology transfer system 102 can make the approved package availableto the designated plant facilities for use in manufacturing thecorresponding product. In some scenarios, this may involve making thepackage accessible to users of other user roles (e.g., plant managers,engineers, operators, etc.) who are responsible for putting the productinto production at the plant facility.

FIGS. 23-25 are other example dashboards that can be generated by userinterface component 104 and used to browse the ecosystem ofmanufacturing entities and packages that have been submitted to andregistered with the technology transfer system 102. FIG. 23 is a view ofinterface 1602 in which a geographical view of available plantfacilities is rendered in the results window 1608. In some embodiments,this geographical view can be invoked and used to browse the plantfacilities that have a contractual relationship with the technologyowner 202 based on the geographical locations of those plant facilities.To this end, a map is rendered in the results window 1608, and selectionof a manufacturing entity within the navigation tree 1604 causes eachplant facility owned by the selected manufacturing entity to be renderedon the map as a plant icon 2302 placed at the location of the physicalplant. Selection of a specific plant facility in the navigation tree1604 can cause the corresponding plant icon 2302 to be highlighted onthe map.

FIG. 24 is a closer view of the geographical map displayed by interface1602, in which the user has hovered a cursor over a selected one of theplant icons 2302. Hovering a curser over a plant icon 2302 in thismanner can cause a summary window 2402 for the corresponding plant to beoverlaid on the map near the selected icon 2302. The summary window 2402can include such information as the manufacturing entity that owns theplant, the company (technology owner) having a business relationshipwith manufacturing entity, and a name and current status of the plant.The summary window 2402 can also list the names of all packages thathave been assigned to the plant and the respective review statuses ofthose packages.

FIG. 25 is an example dashboard 2502 that can be generated by the userinterface component 104 and used to browse summary information forselected companies, manufacturers, plants, and packages. In thisexample, a selection bar 2504 is rendered near the top of the dashboard2502 comprising drop-down selection boxes for selecting a desiredcompany (technology owner), manufacturer, plant, and/or package to beviewed. Selections made in the selection bar 2504 filter the informationpresented on the dashboard 2502. The selection boxes are populated withselectable entities registered in each category. The selectable entitiesavailable in each selection box are also filtered based on the role ofthe user, such that only those entities that are within the scope of theuser's access privileges (as defined by the user's assigned role oraffiliation) are made available for selection. For example, a useraffiliated with the technology owner 202 may be permitted to select fromamong all registered manufacturing entities having a businessrelationship with the technology owner 202, while a user affiliated witha manufacturing entity 214 may only be permitted to view informationthat is within the scope of that manufacturing entity 214 while beingdenied the ability to view information for other manufacturing entities.The selections may also be further filtered based on the user's rolewithin the organization.

Dashboard 2502 comprises information windows that display respectivedifferent types of information based on the filter criteria set usingthe selection boxes. For example, for a selected company or technologyowner 202, the dashboard 2502 may indicate a total number ofmanufacturing entities that are partnered with the company. Similarly,for a selected manufacturing entity, the dashboard 2502 may indicate atotal number of plants owned by that manufacturer.

A Package summary window 2506 can list a filtered set of packages basedon the filtering criteria, together with summary information for eachpackage (e.g., a package name, the date of the most recent modificationto the package, a plant to which the package has been assigned, a reviewstatus of the package, etc.). A Recent Activities window 2510 candisplay a log of most recent activities for the selected company,manufacturer, plant, and/or package. In an example embodiment, eachentry can comprise information relating to a status update for apackage, indicating when a package has been created, rejected, orapproved. Each entry can also include a time and date of the statuschange, an identity of a user who initiated the status change, or othersuch informant.

An Audit Log window 2512 can display a log of auditing events relevantto the selected company, manufacturer, plant, and/or package. This auditinformation can log updates that were performed on the model 208 itself,including times and dates at which nodes are created or modified (e.g.,manufacturer, plant, or package nodes), as well as identities of theusers who implemented the modifications. Dashboard 2502 can also includea map window 2508 similar to that illustrated in FIG. 23 , which rendersa set of plant icons—filtered in accordance with the selectioncriteria—at respective map locations corresponding to the physicallocations of those plants.

In some embodiments, the package management component 116 can supportthe use of blockchain technology to record the approved package data ina secure, immutable format. In such embodiments, the package managementcomponent 116 can also record audit information for the package in ablockchain ledger. This audit information can comprise a log ofmodifications to the technology transfer document 204, identities of theusers who implemented the modifications, and the time and date of themodifications. Recording this information in a blockchain ledger yieldsa secure and immutable edit history for the document, while permittingthe document to be modified in a regulated manner.

As noted above, edits or feedback can be submitted to a package model1106 during the review process via interactions with interface 1602. Insome embodiments, the system 102 can translate some or all of theseedits to performance metrics that can be provided as feedback to theconversion component 108 to improve subsequent translations oftechnology transfer documents 204. FIG. 26 is a diagram illustratingsubmission of document edits 2604 by a reviewer at a manufacturingentity 214. During the document review process, the reviewer may submitedits 2604 to the translated package model 1106 to alter descriptivetext, modify process control parameters, re-order steps of amanufacturing stage, or implement other such updates. Some of theseedits 2604, such as re-ordering of process steps, may result inmodification of the hierarchical structure of the package model 1106 orotherwise serve to correct an error in the translation from the originaltechnology transfer document 204 to the package model 1106.

Authorized edits 2604 submitted to the system 102 are applied to thepackage model 1106 (a subset of the larger aggregate model 208) by themodel builder component 106. Additionally, if any of the edits 2604correct a mis-translation of the original technology transfer document204, these edits 2604 can translated to performance feedback 2608 andprovided to the conversion component 108. This performance feedback 2608can modify the parsing engine or algorithms used by the conversioncomponent 108 to generate the raw object model 1302 for a technologytransfer document 204, or to generate the structured object model 1304.In particular, the performance feedback 2608 can configure theconversion component 108 to modify its translation algorithms so thatsubsequent document translations will preemptively implement the editsubmitted by the reviewer (or an analogous edit depending on the natureof the original document 204). In this way, the package review processcan also serve as a means for collecting performance metrics for theconversion component 108, which improve the accuracy of subsequenttranslations of technology transfer documents 204 to package models1106.

Package data encoded in a package model 1106 can be exported to andconsumed by various types of devices and systems to facilitatemanufacture of the product defined by the originating technologytransfer document 204. FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating export ofcontrol configuration data 2704 to an MES system 2706 of a manufacturingentity 214. Once a package has been finalized and approved, datarelating to the product defined by the package—including recipeinformation; details of the manufacturing processes, stages, and stepsfor producing the product, etc.—is made available to users, devices, andsystems at the manufacturing entities 214 that have been assigned thetask of manufacturing the product. In addition to making this packageinformation accessible and viewable by relevant users (e.g., viainterface 1602), the system 102 can translate portions of the model datato control configuration data 2704 that can be used to configure MESsystems, ERP systems, industrial control devices such as industrialcontrollers 2708, product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, or othersuch equipment.

To this end, the export component 110 can extract recipe and processdata 2702 from the package model 1106—that is, data relating to themanufacturing process—and translate this data 2702 to controlconfiguration data 2704 formatted in accordance with a target device orsystem to which the configuration data 2704 will be sent. In theillustrated example, the export component 110 outputs the controlconfiguration data to an MES system 2706 associated with a manufacturingentity 214, which performs supervisory monitoring and management ofcontrol operations on the control level. The configuration data 2704provides the MES system 2706 with the recipe information, controlparameters, step sequences, or other such process information formanufacturing the product. Based on this configuration data 2704, theMES system 2706 can direct control devices executing in the plantfacility, such as industrial controllers 2708, to control theirrespective industrial assets in accordance with the production specificsencoded in the configuration data 2704.

Although FIG. 27 depicts configuration of an MES system 2706 using thecontrol configuration data 2704, the technology transfer system 102 canexport control configuration data 2704 to various types of industrialcontrol devices or systems as needed, depending on how the manufacturingprocess for the product is to be partitioned among control systems,plant facilities, and manufacturing entities. For example, as notedabove, a technology owner 202 may choose to partition the stages of amulti-stage manufacturing process between two or more differentproduction lines, plant facilities, or manufacturing entities. Topartition a process in this manner, a user affiliated with thetechnology owner 202 can interact with interface 1602 to designate eachStage node 1902 of the package model 1106 to a selected plant facilityor production line. Based on these designations, users affiliated withthe respective plant facilities are permitted to access and view theportions of the package model 1106 corresponding to their designatedstage of the process, and in some scenarios may be prevented fromaccessing portions of the model 1106 that have been designated to othermanufacturing entities 214 (thereby protecting the intellectual propertyof the technology owner by preventing any single manufacturing entityfrom viewing details of the manufacturing process in its entirety).Additionally, the export component 110 can export control configurationdata 2704 obtained from the model 1106 to control devices and systemsassociated with the designated facilities or production areas, such thateach target facility receives configuration data 2704 obtained solelyfrom the portions of the model 1106 that have been designated to thatfacility. Export component 110 can be configured to support any suitablesecurity protocol to ensure that the control configuration data 2704 isdelivered securely to its target devices and systems.

Some embodiments of technology transfer system 102 can also supportcreation and simulation of a digital twin of the package manufacturingprocess represented by the package model 1106, which can allow users tovalidate operation of the manufacturing process by the designatedmanufacturing entities 214 prior to carrying out the manufacturingprocess on the physical industrial assets. FIG. 28 is a diagramillustrating creation of a digital twin 2802 of a manufacturing processrepresented by a package model 1106. As noted above, a technology owner202 can designate selected manufacturing processes or stages defined inthe package model 1106 to respective different production lines; e.g.,by submitting package deployment information 2804 to the system 102 (viainterface 1602) that assigns nodes of the navigation tree 1604representing the processes or stages to selected production lines. Inthe example depicted in FIG. 28 , the user has assigned stages 1-3 of amanufacturing process to Production Lines 8, 5, and 7, respectively.These different production lines may reside in the same plant facilityassociated with a single manufacturing entity 214 or may begeographically distributed among different plant facilities associatedwith the same manufacturing entity 214 or multiple differentmanufacturing entities 214.

Once this partitioning of the manufacturing process has been defined,the user may choose to generate a digital twin 2802 and simulateoperation of the manufacturing process prior to execution on thephysical production lines. To this end, a digital twin generatorcomponent 112 can generate this digital twin 2802 based on the packagedeployment information 2804 submitted by the user—which defines whichproduction lines defined in the model 208 are to execute the respectivestages of the process—and information about the industrial equipment(e.g., mixers, presses, ovens, etc.) that make up those productionlines. Returning briefly to the example model 208 illustrated in FIG. 14, the digital twin generator component 112 can obtain capability orspecification information for the industrial equipment on each of thedesignated production lines from the Lines layer 1410 of the model 208and use this equipment capability information to generatesimulation-capable digital models of the equipment as part of thedigital twin 2802. Example equipment capability information that can beobtained from the model 208 and used by the digital twin generatorcomponent 112 to generate the digital twin 2802 can include, but is notlimited to, operating speeds, product throughput capacities, ratedtemperatures or flows, or other such equipment capability information.These digital equipment models can also be configured in accordance withany control or process parameters defined by the process steps that havebeen assigned to the corresponding equipment (that is, the control orprocess parameters obtained from the original technology transferdocument and included in the package model 1106). The digital twingenerator component 112 can aggregate equipment models for a givenproduction line to yield a simulation capable production line model aspart of the digital twin 2802.

Digital twin generator component 112 also assigns, to each of theproduction line models, the one or more stages or operations of themanufacturing process that have been assigned to that production line,as defined by the user-provided package deployment information 2804.These assignments configure the digital twin 2802 to simulate executionof each of the stages or operations of the manufacturing process bytheir assigned production lines. If the designated production linesencompass multiple different, geographically diverse productionfacilities, the scope of the digital twin 2802 can includetransportation of product between plant facilities as part of asequential staging of the product. Distances between these differentplant facilities can be obtained from the model 208 based on theregistered locations of the relevant plants and encode in the digitaltwin 2802 so that transportation times can be simulated.

Once the digital twin 2802 has been created, the system's simulationcomponent 114 can execute a simulation of the digital twin 2802 topredict operation of the manufacturing process by the designatedproduction lines. FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating execution of thedigital twin 2802 by the technology transfer system 102. The simulationcomponent 114 can consider the capabilities and specification data forthe modeled industrial equipment together with the operations requiredof that equipment—as dictated by the portions of the manufacturingprocess to be carried out by the respective pieces of equipment—tosimulate manufacture of the product and generate simulation results 2902that quantify various aspects of the simulated process. Examplesimulation results 2902 that can be generated by the simulationcomponent 114 based on simulation of the digital twin 2802 can include,but are not limited to, timings of various aspects of the product,identification of bottlenecks in the production flow, product qualityestimations, estimated product throughput or output, or other suchresults 2902.

In some embodiments, the simulation component 114 can also be configuredto generate recommendations for improving the manufacturing processbased on the simulation and information contained in the model 208. Inan example scenario, the simulation component 114 may determine that thepredicted rate of product throughput can be improved if a stage of theprocess that has been assigned to a first production line is insteadcarried out on a second production line capable of performing the sameoperation more quickly or with less potential machine downtime. Inmaking this assessment, the simulation component 114 can refer to themodel 208 to identify other available production lines with similar butimproved capabilities. The user interface component 104 can render theserecommendations, as well as other simulation results 2902, on a clientdevice associated with an authorized user, who may choose to modify thepartitioning of the package manufacturing process between productionlines based on assessment of the simulation results 2902. In general,the manufacturing process for the package can be validated by thesimulation of the digital twin 2802 prior to deploying the process tothe physical production lines.

The technology transfer system described herein can simplify andautomate many aspects of the technology transfer process using acentralized platform for translating, sharing, editing, and trackingtechnology documentation. The system's document translation features cantransform the content of a technology transfer document to a structuredhierarchical object-based model that can then be browsed and viewed byrelevant parties. The system enforces role-based access privileges tothe package model, affording a technology owner a great degree ofcontrol over the distribution of the document's contents. The systemalso manages and tracks approval statues for the document. Onceapproved, the system can export recipe data or control configurationinformation, including process control parameters, to industrial controlsystems to facilitate configuring those systems to manufacture theproduct defined by the document.

FIGS. 30-32 b illustrate methodologies in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the subject application. While, for purposes ofsimplicity of explanation, the methodologies shown herein is shown anddescribed as a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciatedthat the subject innovation is not limited by the order of acts, as someacts may, in accordance therewith, occur in a different order and/orconcurrently with other acts from that shown and described herein. Forexample, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate that amethodology could alternatively be represented as a series ofinterrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, notall illustrated acts may be required to implement a methodology inaccordance with the innovation. Furthermore, interaction diagram(s) mayrepresent methodologies, or methods, in accordance with the subjectdisclosure when disparate entities enact disparate portions of themethodologies. Further yet, two or more of the disclosed example methodscan be implemented in combination with each other, to accomplish one ormore features or advantages described herein.

FIG. 30 illustrates an example methodology 3000 for creating aninnovator model that defines an ecosystem of manufacturing entities thatare contracted with a technology owner to manufacture products.Initially, at 3002, model configuration interfaces are rendered on aclient device associated with an authorized user affiliated with thetechnology owner. The model configuration interfaces prompt for input ofinformation relating to plant facilities owned by one or moremanufacturing entities having a business relationship with thetechnology owner.

At 3004, information relating to the plant facilities is received viainteraction with the model configuration interfaces. This informationcan include, but is not limited to, identities of the manufacturingentities, identities and locations of plant facilities operated by themanufacturing entities, manufacturing capabilities of the plantfacilities, production lines and associated industrial equipment inoperation at the respective plant facilities, or other such information.

At 3006, an innovator model is generated based on the informationreceived at step 3004. The innovator model represents the manufacturingentities, their associated plant facilities, and the capabilities ofthose facilities as a hierarchical organization of nodes or objects.

FIG. 31 a illustrates a first part of an example methodology 3100 a fortranslating a technology transfer document to a digitized hierarchicalobject model notation. Initially, at 3102, a technology transferdocument describing a product to be manufactured is received at atechnology transfer system. The technology transfer document can besubmitted as a natural language document in any suitable file format(e.g., a PDF document) and can comprise sections and sub-sectionsdelineated by headers or titles. The sections and subsections describe aproduct to be manufactured (e.g., a pharmaceutical product) and detailedinformation conveying how the product is to be manufactured. Thedocument can include sections describing the stages of the manufacturingprocess and the steps for carrying out the respective stages. Thedocument can also include values of process parameters associated withrespective steps of the process, as well as any relevant tables orcharts.

At 3104, the technology transfer document is analyzed to identifyindividual sections of the document and types of content contained inthe respective sections. This analysis can include, for example,applying natural language processing to the text of the document toidentify and delineate the various sections of the document based onheader text, tags embedded in the document, recognized documentformatting, or other such document characteristics. At 3106, a rawobject model is generated comprising objects or nodes representing thesections of the document and their content, as identified based on theanalysis applied at step 3104. The raw object model is an intermediate,uncontextualized representation formatted according to any suitableobject notation, such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). The rawobject model can comprise objects or nodes representing the varioussections and sub-sections discovered in the document based on theanalysis of step 3104.

At 3108, a structured object model is generated by applyingcontextualization processing to the raw object model created at step3106. The structured object model organizes the objects into ahierarchical structure based on learned relationships between content ofthe document. At 3110, the structured object model generated at step3108 is translated to a hierarchical document model having a format thatconforms to an industrial standard, such as ISA-88. The document modelcomprises nodes or objects representing manufacturing processes, stages,steps, and parameters for manufacturing the product. The document modelcan be browsed using suitable user interfaces to view respectivesections of document content.

The resulting document model can also be integrated into the innovatormodel generated using methodology 3000 described above in connectionwith FIG. 30 by assigning respective processes or steps of themanufacturing process defined in the document model to selectedproduction lines defined in the innovator model. The resulting aggregatemodel can be browsed to view information about the plant facilities thatmake up the ecosystem of manufacturing entities and the document models(packages) associated with the respective plant facilities.

The methodology continues with the second part 3100 b illustrated inFIG. 31 b . At 3112, the hierarchical document model generated at step3110 is rendered accessible to one or more reviewers via dashboardinterfaces generated by the technology transfer system. In this regard,the document model can be rendered as a browsable hierarchicalnavigation tree that allows the reviewers to locate, select, and viewsections of the document, including descriptions of the product,descriptions of the manufacturing process, recipe information formanufacturing the product, charts, tables, control parameters associatedwith the manufacturing process, or other such content.

At 3114, feedback data is received from the reviewers via interactionwith the dashboard interfaces. The feedback data comprises at least oneof approval, rejection, or commentary directed to selected portions ofthe document model, or to the document model as a while. At 3116, adetermination is made as to whether any of the feedback data received atstep 3114 is suggestive of an error in translating the technologytransfer document to the hierarchical document model (that is, errors inany of the steps 3104-3110). If any of the feedback data is suggestiveof a translation error (YES at step 3116), the methodology proceeds tostep 3118, where an algorithm or parsing engine used to generate any ofthe raw object model, the structured object model, or the hierarchicaldocument model is updated based on the feedback data to improve thedocument translation process. At 3120, the feedback data is recorded inassociation with the document model. If the feedback data is notsuggestive of an error in the translation process (NO at step 3116), themethodology proceeds directly to step 3120 without executing step 3118.

FIG. 32 a illustrates a first part of an example methodology 3200 a forgenerating and simulating a digital twin of a manufacturing processbased on information obtained from a translated technology transferdocument. Initially, at 3202, a technology transfer document describinga product to be manufactured is received at a technology transfer system(similar to step 3102 of methodology 3100 a). At 3204, the technologytransfer document is translated to a hierarchical document model havinga format that conforms to an industrial standard. The document modelcomprises nodes representing manufacturing processes, stages, steps, andparameters for manufacturing the product. Step 3204 can be executed, forexample, using steps 3104-3110 of methodology 3100 a.

At 3206, manufacturing processes or stages defined by the hierarchicaldocument modal are assigned to respective plant facilities defined in ahierarchical innovator model. The innovator model can be created usingmethodology 3000 described above, and defines plant facilitiesassociated with one or more manufacturing entities and respectivecapabilities associated with the plant facilities. The assignments canbe made by an authorized user via interaction with an interface displaythat renders the innovator model as a hierarchical navigation tree andthat allows the user to assign selected nodes of the document modelrepresenting manufacturing processes or stages to selected nodes of theinnovator model representing the plant facilities that are to executethe processes or stages.

The methodology then proceeds to the second part 3200 b illustrated inFIG. 32 b . At 3208, a digital twin is generated based on informationobtained from the document model and the innovator model, and furtherbased on the assignments defined at step 3206. The digital twin is asimulation-capable model of a manufacturing process for manufacturingthe product by the designated plant facilities. At 3210, a simulation ofthe digital twin is executed. The simulation simulates the manufacturingprocess by simulating execution of the steps of the manufacturingprocess defined on the document model by the respective plant facilitiesto which those steps have been assigned at step 3206. The simulation cantake into consideration information about the industrial equipment thatmake up the production lines that are to execute the steps, as obtainedfrom the innovator model, as well as the operations required of theequipment as determined from the steps defined in the document model.The digital twin can also be configured to simulate execution of therelevant plant equipment as configured in accordance with any control orprocess parameters defined by the original technology transfer document.

At 3212, results of the simulation are rendered on a client device.These results can include at least one of timing information for themanufacturing process, identification of production bottlenecks,estimated production rates, recommendations for re-assigning specifiedmanufacturing processes or stages to alternative production lines thatare estimated to improve performance of the manufacturing process, orother such simulation results.

Embodiments, systems, and components described herein, as well ascontrol systems and automation environments in which various aspects setforth in the subject specification can be carried out, can includecomputer or network components such as servers, clients, programmablelogic controllers (PLCs), automation controllers, communicationsmodules, mobile computers, on-board computers for mobile vehicles,wireless components, control components and so forth which are capableof interacting across a network. Computers and servers include one ormore processors—electronic integrated circuits that perform logicoperations employing electric signals—configured to execute instructionsstored in media such as random access memory (RAM), read only memory(ROM), hard drives, as well as removable memory devices, which caninclude memory sticks, memory cards, flash drives, external hard drives,and so on.

Similarly, the term PLC or automation controller as used herein caninclude functionality that can be shared across multiple components,systems, and/or networks. As an example, one or more PLCs or automationcontrollers can communicate and cooperate with various network devicesacross the network. This can include substantially any type of control,communications module, computer, Input/Output (I/O) device, sensor,actuator, and human machine interface (HMI) that communicate via thenetwork, which includes control, automation, and/or public networks. ThePLC or automation controller can also communicate to and control variousother devices such as standard or safety-rated I/O modules includinganalog, digital, programmed/intelligent I/O modules, other programmablecontrollers, communications modules, sensors, actuators, output devices,and the like.

The network can include public networks such as the internet, intranets,and automation networks such as control and information protocol (CIP)networks including DeviceNet, ControlNet, safety networks, andEtherNet/IP. Other networks include Ethernet, DH/DH+, Remote I/O,Fieldbus, Modbus, Profibus, CAN, wireless networks, serial protocols,and so forth. In addition, the network devices can include variouspossibilities (hardware and/or software components). These includecomponents such as switches with virtual local area network (VLAN)capability, LANs, WANs, proxies, gateways, routers, firewalls, virtualprivate network (VPN) devices, servers, clients, computers,configuration tools, monitoring tools, and/or other devices.

In order to provide a context for the various aspects of the disclosedsubject matter, FIGS. 33 and 35 as well as the following discussion areintended to provide a brief, general description of a suitableenvironment in which the various aspects of the disclosed subject mattermay be implemented. While the embodiments have been described above inthe general context of computer-executable instructions that can run onone or more computers, those skilled in the art will recognize that theembodiments can be also implemented in combination with other programmodules and/or as a combination of hardware and software.

Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, datastructures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciatethat the inventive methods can be practiced with other computer systemconfigurations, including single-processor or multiprocessor computersystems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, Internet of Things (IoT)devices, distributed computing systems, as well as personal computers,hand-held computing devices, microprocessor-based or programmableconsumer electronics, and the like, each of which can be operativelycoupled to one or more associated devices.

The illustrated embodiments herein can be also practiced in distributedcomputing environments where certain tasks are performed by remoteprocessing devices that are linked through a communications network. Ina distributed computing environment, program modules can be located inboth local and remote memory storage devices.

Computing devices typically include a variety of media, which caninclude computer-readable storage media, machine-readable storage media,and/or communications media, which two terms are used herein differentlyfrom one another as follows. Computer-readable storage media ormachine-readable storage media can be any available storage media thatcan be accessed by the computer and includes both volatile andnonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example,and not limitation, computer-readable storage media or machine-readablestorage media can be implemented in connection with any method ortechnology for storage of information such as computer-readable ormachine-readable instructions, program modules, structured data orunstructured data.

Computer-readable storage media can include, but are not limited to,random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), electricallyerasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or othermemory technology, compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM), digitalversatile disk (DVD), Blu-ray disc (BD) or other optical disk storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, solid state drives or other solid statestorage devices, or other tangible and/or non-transitory media which canbe used to store desired information. In this regard, the terms“tangible” or “non-transitory” herein as applied to storage, memory orcomputer-readable media, are to be understood to exclude onlypropagating transitory signals per se as modifiers and do not relinquishrights to all standard storage, memory or computer-readable media thatare not only propagating transitory signals per se.

Computer-readable storage media can be accessed by one or more local orremote computing devices, e.g., via access requests, queries or otherdata retrieval protocols, for a variety of operations with respect tothe information stored by the medium.

Communications media typically embody computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules or other structured or unstructureddata in a data signal such as a modulated data signal, e.g., a carrierwave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information deliveryor transport media. The term “modulated data signal” or signals refersto a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changedin such a manner as to encode information in one or more signals. By wayof example, and not limitation, communication media include wired media,such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless mediasuch as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

With reference again to FIG. 33 , the example environment 3300 forimplementing various embodiments of the aspects described hereinincludes a computer 3302, the computer 3302 including a processing unit3304, a system memory 3306 and a system bus 3308. The system bus 3308couples system components including, but not limited to, the systemmemory 3306 to the processing unit 3304. The processing unit 3304 can beany of various commercially available processors. Dual microprocessorsand other multi-processor architectures can also be employed as theprocessing unit 3304.

The system bus 3308 can be any of several types of bus structure thatcan further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memorycontroller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety ofcommercially available bus architectures. The system memory 3306includes ROM 3310 and RAM 3312. A basic input/output system (BIOS) canbe stored in a non-volatile memory such as ROM, erasable programmableread only memory (EPROM), EEPROM, which BIOS contains the basic routinesthat help to transfer information between elements within the computer3302, such as during startup. The RAM 3312 can also include a high-speedRAM such as static RAM for caching data.

The computer 3302 further includes an internal hard disk drive (HDD)3314 (e.g., EIDE, SATA), one or more external storage devices 3316(e.g., a magnetic floppy disk drive (FDD) 3316, a memory stick or flashdrive reader, a memory card reader, etc.) and an optical disk drive 3320(e.g., which can read or write from a CD-ROM disc, a DVD, a BD, etc.).While the internal HDD 3314 is illustrated as located within thecomputer 3302, the internal HDD 3314 can also be configured for externaluse in a suitable chassis (not shown). Additionally, while not shown inenvironment 3300, a solid state drive (SSD) could be used in additionto, or in place of, an HDD 3314. The HDD 3314, external storagedevice(s) 3316 and optical disk drive 3320 can be connected to thesystem bus 3308 by an HDD interface 3324, an external storage interface3326 and an optical drive interface 3328, respectively. The interface3324 for external drive implementations can include at least one or bothof Universal Serial Bus (USB) and Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394 interface technologies. Other externaldrive connection technologies are within contemplation of theembodiments described herein.

The drives and their associated computer-readable storage media providenonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executableinstructions, and so forth. For the computer 3302, the drives andstorage media accommodate the storage of any data in a suitable digitalformat. Although the description of computer-readable storage mediaabove refers to respective types of storage devices, it should beappreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of storagemedia which are readable by a computer, whether presently existing ordeveloped in the future, could also be used in the example operatingenvironment, and further, that any such storage media can containcomputer-executable instructions for performing the methods describedherein.

A number of program modules can be stored in the drives and RAM 3312,including an operating system 3330, one or more application programs3332, other program modules 3334 and program data 3336. All or portionsof the operating system, applications, modules, and/or data can also becached in the RAM 3312. The systems and methods described herein can beimplemented utilizing various commercially available operating systemsor combinations of operating systems.

Computer 3302 can optionally comprise emulation technologies. Forexample, a hypervisor (not shown) or other intermediary can emulate ahardware environment for operating system 3330, and the emulatedhardware can optionally be different from the hardware illustrated inFIG. 33 . In such an embodiment, operating system 3330 can comprise onevirtual machine (VM) of multiple VMs hosted at computer 3302.Furthermore, operating system 3330 can provide runtime environments,such as the Java runtime environment or the .NET framework, forapplication programs 3332. Runtime environments are consistent executionenvironments that allow application programs 3332 to run on anyoperating system that includes the runtime environment. Similarly,operating system 3330 can support containers, and application programs3332 can be in the form of containers, which are lightweight,standalone, executable packages of software that include, e.g., code,runtime, system tools, system libraries and settings for an application.

Further, computer 3302 can be enable with a security module, such as atrusted processing module (TPM). For instance with a TPM, bootcomponents hash next in time boot components, and wait for a match ofresults to secured values, before loading a next boot component. Thisprocess can take place at any layer in the code execution stack ofcomputer 3302, e.g., applied at the application execution level or atthe operating system (OS) kernel level, thereby enabling security at anylevel of code execution.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 3302 throughone or more wired/wireless input devices, e.g., a keyboard 3338, a touchscreen 3340, and a pointing device, such as a mouse 3342. Other inputdevices (not shown) can include a microphone, an infrared (IR) remotecontrol, a radio frequency (RF) remote control, or other remote control,a joystick, a virtual reality controller and/or virtual reality headset,a game pad, a stylus pen, an image input device, e.g., camera(s), agesture sensor input device, a vision movement sensor input device, anemotion or facial detection device, a biometric input device, e.g.,fingerprint or iris scanner, or the like. These and other input devicesare often connected to the processing unit 3304 through an input deviceinterface 3344 that can be coupled to the system bus 3308, but can beconnected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, an IEEE 1394serial port, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, a BLUETOOTH®interface, etc.

A monitor 3344 or other type of display device can be also connected tothe system bus 3308 via an interface, such as a video adapter 3348. Inaddition to the monitor 3344, a computer typically includes otherperipheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers, printers, etc.

The computer 3302 can operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections via wired and/or wireless communications to one or moreremote computers, such as a remote computer(s) 3348. The remotecomputer(s) 3348 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, apersonal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainmentappliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typicallyincludes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer3302, although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device3350 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted includewired/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 3352 and/orlarger networks, e.g., a wide area network (WAN) 3354. Such LAN and WANnetworking environments are commonplace in offices and companies, andfacilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such as intranets, all ofwhich can connect to a global communications network, e.g., theInternet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 3302 can beconnected to the local network 3352 through a wired and/or wirelesscommunication network interface or adapter 3356. The adapter 3356 canfacilitate wired or wireless communication to the LAN 3352, which canalso include a wireless access point (AP) disposed thereon forcommunicating with the adapter 3356 in a wireless mode.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 3302 can includea modem 3358 or can be connected to a communications server on the WAN3354 via other means for establishing communications over the WAN 3354,such as by way of the Internet. The modem 3358, which can be internal orexternal and a wired or wireless device, can be connected to the systembus 3308 via the input device interface 3346. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 3302 orportions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device3350. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown areexample and other means of establishing a communications link betweenthe computers can be used.

When used in either a LAN or WAN networking environment, the computer3302 can access cloud storage systems or other network-based storagesystems in addition to, or in place of, external storage devices 3316 asdescribed above. Generally, a connection between the computer 3302 and acloud storage system can be established over a LAN 3352 or WAN 3354e.g., by the adapter 3356 or modem 3358, respectively. Upon connectingthe computer 3302 to an associated cloud storage system, the externalstorage interface 3326 can, with the aid of the adapter 3356 and/ormodem 3358, manage storage provided by the cloud storage system as itwould other types of external storage. For instance, the externalstorage interface 3326 can be configured to provide access to cloudstorage sources as if those sources were physically connected to thecomputer 3302.

The computer 3302 can be operable to communicate with any wirelessdevices or entities operatively disposed in wireless communication,e.g., a printer, scanner, desktop and/or portable computer, portabledata assistant, communications satellite, any piece of equipment orlocation associated with a wirelessly detectable tag (e.g., a kiosk,news stand, store shelf, etc.), and telephone. This can include WirelessFidelity (Wi-Fi) and BLUETOOTH® wireless technologies. Thus, thecommunication can be a predefined structure as with a conventionalnetwork or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices.

FIG. 34 is a schematic block diagram of a sample computing environment3400 with which the disclosed subject matter can interact. The samplecomputing environment 1500 includes one or more client(s) 3402. Theclient(s) 3402 can be hardware and/or software (e.g., threads,processes, computing devices). The sample computing environment 3400also includes one or more server(s) 3404. The server(s) 3404 can also behardware and/or software (e.g., threads, processes, computing devices).The servers 3404 can house threads to perform transformations byemploying one or more embodiments as described herein, for example. Onepossible communication between a client 3402 and servers 3404 can be inthe form of a data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or morecomputer processes. The sample computing environment 3400 includes acommunication framework 3406 that can be employed to facilitatecommunications between the client(s) 3402 and the server(s) 3404. Theclient(s) 3402 are operably connected to one or more client datastore(s) 3408 that can be employed to store information local to theclient(s) 1502. Similarly, the server(s) 3404 are operably connected toone or more server data store(s) 3410 that can be employed to storeinformation local to the servers 3404.

What has been described above includes examples of the subjectinnovation. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivablecombination of components or methodologies for purposes of describingthe disclosed subject matter, but one of ordinary skill in the art mayrecognize that many further combinations and permutations of the subjectinnovation are possible. Accordingly, the disclosed subject matter isintended to embrace all such alterations, modifications, and variationsthat fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

In particular and in regard to the various functions performed by theabove described components, devices, circuits, systems and the like, theterms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe suchcomponents are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, toany component which performs the specified function of the describedcomponent (e.g., a functional equivalent), even though not structurallyequivalent to the disclosed structure, which performs the function inthe herein illustrated exemplary aspects of the disclosed subjectmatter. In this regard, it will also be recognized that the disclosedsubject matter includes a system as well as a computer-readable mediumhaving computer-executable instructions for performing the acts and/orevents of the various methods of the disclosed subject matter.

In addition, while a particular feature of the disclosed subject mattermay have been disclosed with respect to only one of severalimplementations, such feature may be combined with one or more otherfeatures of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageousfor any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent thatthe terms “includes,” and “including” and variants thereof are used ineither the detailed description or the claims, these terms are intendedto be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.”

In this application, the word “exemplary” is used to mean serving as anexample, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design describedherein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the wordexemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.

Various aspects or features described herein may be implemented as amethod, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programmingand/or engineering techniques. The term “article of manufacture” as usedherein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from anycomputer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computerreadable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storagedevices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips . . . ), opticaldisks [e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD) . . . ],smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., card, stick, key drive . .. ).

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a processor, operativelycoupled to a memory, that executes executable components stored on thememory, the executable components comprising: a user interface componentconfigured to import a technology transfer document containinginformation about a product to be manufactured and describing amanufacturing process for manufacturing the product a conversioncomponent configured to translate the technology transfer document to apackage model, the package model comprising a hierarchically structuredorganization of nodes representing content sections of the technologytransfer document; and an export component configured to translateinformation about the manufacturing process contained in the packagemodel to control configuration data and to export the controlconfiguration data to an industrial device or system, wherein thecontrol configuration data configures the industrial device or system toexecute a portion of the manufacturing process.
 2. The system of claim1, wherein the industrial device or system is at least one of anindustrial controller, a manufacturing execution system, an enterpriseresource planning system, or a product lifecycle management system. 3.The system of claim 1, wherein the technology transfer document isimported as at least one of a portable document format file, a wordprocessing file, or an image file.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein thenodes of the package model are organized according to a hierarchy oflevels comprising one or more of a process level representing amanufacturing process, a stage level representing stages of themanufacturing process, a step level representing steps of the stages, ora parameter level representing control parameter values associated withthe steps.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the conversion component isconfigured to identify sections of the technology transfer document anddetermine types of content contained in the sections, translate thetechnology transfer document to a raw object model comprising nodesrepresenting the sections and the content contained in the sections, andtranslate the raw object model to a structured object model thatorganizes the nodes or objects of the raw object model into ahierarchical structure based on learned relationships between thecontent.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the conversion component isfurther configured to apply standardization processing to the structureddocument model to yield the package model, and the standardizationprocessing organizes nodes of the standardized model according to anindustrial standard.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the userinterface is configured to render the package model as a browsablenavigation tree on a user interface, and in response to selection, viainteraction with the user interface, of a node of the navigation treerepresenting a section of the technology transfer document, rendercontent associated with the section of the technology transfer documenton the user interface.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the userinterface component is configured to receive, via interaction with thenavigation tree, assignment data that assigns a manufacturing stepdefined by the package model to a production line defined in the system,and the export component is configured to generate the controlconfiguration data based on information about the manufacturing stepcontained in the package model and export the control configuration datato an industrial device or system that controls the production line. 9.The system of claim 8, further comprising a model builder componentconfigured to integrate the package model into an innovator model basedon the assignment data, wherein the innovator model defines an ecosystemof plant facilities, and nodes of the innovator model are organizedaccording to a hierarchy of levels comprising one or more of atechnology owner level, a manufacturer level, a plant level, and apackages level.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein one of the contentsections comprises control parameter values for a step of themanufacturing process, the conversion component records the controlparameter values in association with a node of the package modelrepresenting the step, and the export component is configured to obtainthe control parameter values from the package model and include thecontrol parameter values in the control configuration data.
 11. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the system executes as a service on a cloudplatform.
 12. A method, comprising: importing, by a system comprising aprocessor, a technology transfer document containing information about aproduct to be manufactured and describing a manufacturing process formanufacturing the product; converting, by the system, the technologytransfer document to a package model, the package model comprising ahierarchically structured organization of objects representing contentsections of the technology transfer document; generating, by the system,control configuration data based on information about the manufacturingprocess contained in the package model; and sending, by the system, thecontrol configuration data to an industrial device or system tofacilitate configuring the industrial device or system to execute aportion of the manufacturing process.
 13. The method of claim 12,wherein the sending comprises sending the control configuration data toat least one of an industrial controller, a manufacturing executionsystem, an enterprise resource planning system, or a product lifecyclemanagement system.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the convertingcomprises organizing the objects of the package model according to ahierarchy of levels comprising one or more of a process levelrepresenting a manufacturing process, a stage level representing stagesof the manufacturing process, a step level representing steps of thestages, or a parameter level representing control parameter valuesassociated with the steps.
 15. The method of claim 12, wherein theconverting comprises: identifying sections of the technology transferdocument; determining types of content contained in the sections;translating the technology transfer document to a raw object modelcomprising objects representing the sections and the content containedin the sections; and translating the raw object model to a structuredobject model that organizes the nodes or objects of the raw object modelinto a hierarchical structure based on learned relationships between thecontent.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the converting furthercomprises applying standardization processing to the structured documentmodel to yield the package model, wherein the standardization processingorganizes objects of the standardized model according to an industrialstandard.
 17. The method of claim 12, further comprising: rendering, bythe system, the package model as a browsable navigation tree on a userinterface, and in response to selection, via interaction with the userinterface, of an object of the navigation tree representing a section ofthe technology transfer document, rendering, by the system, contentassociated with the section of the technology transfer document on theuser interface.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprisingreceiving, by the system via interaction with the navigation tree,assignment data that assigns a manufacturing step defined by the packagemodel to a production line defined in the system, wherein the generatingof the control configuration data comprises generating the controlconfiguration data based on information about the manufacturing stepcontained in the package model.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readablemedium having stored thereon instructions that, in response toexecution, cause a technology transfer system comprising a processor toperform operations, the operations comprising: importing a technologytransfer document comprising information describing a product to bemanufactured and a manufacturing process for manufacturing the product;translating the technology transfer document to a package model, whereinthe package model comprises a hierarchically structured organization ofnodes representing content sections of the technology transfer document;generating control configuration data based on information about themanufacturing process contained in the package model; and exporting thecontrol configuration data to an industrial device or system tofacilitate configuring the industrial device or system to execute aportion of the manufacturing process.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the converting comprisesorganizing the nodes of the package model according to a hierarchy oflevels comprising one or more of a process level representing amanufacturing process, a stage level representing stages of themanufacturing process, a step level representing steps of the stages, ora parameter level representing control parameter values associated withthe steps.